Misconceptions
by Rel
Summary: As a child Shino encounters someone in the Aburame compound...


He first comes across the lady when he is following a ladybug.

It comes in through one of the open windows, intrepidly trekking it's way across the vast wilderness of his daddy's study and then flying the short distance to the gap in the door. Shino, who is bored and absently leafing through his daddy's insect encyclopaedia to look at the photographs, totters to his feet and sets off in dogged pursuit.

Technically he is not supposed to leave the study, his father has told him to stay put. But it is not a harshly enforced rule, the Aburame compound is enclosed and filled with relatives both close and distance who will assist him if needed. And Shino has quickly grown tired of the warm drowsy study filled with books he can't read and adults discussing things he doesn't understand.

One day he'll go to the Academy, then he'll understand everything and be a great ninja like his daddy. Until then it seems like he is mainly expected to be quiet, respect his elders and to entertain himself when his daddy is busy... which is what he is doing right now.

He loves his daddy, wishes he wasn't busy as much as he is. When his daddy has free-time they do the most wonderful things together... but it doesn't really matter to Shino what they do, as long as they are together. His daddy is his world and he worships him.

He doesn't quite recognise the part of the compound he's wandering into now, but he isn't worried. The compound is big and getting lost in it is quite a regular occurrence for him... but he is learning, can already find his way around a lot more than he used to.

The ladybug takes flight, landing on a windowsill that is above Shino's eye-level. Frustrated he stamps a foot, then immediately looks around to make sure no one saw. Displays of temper like that are WRONG, he doesn't know why but he knows he's not supposed to get upset or angry or laugh and smile too much... nobody tells him off exactly, but they frown at him as if he were doing something that a baby would do, not something a grown-up boy of three should.

There is someone watching him, paused in the act of sliding back a door.

A lady.

She doesn't look like the other adults in the house. Without fail, every person Shino knows wears sunglasses and usually a baggy coat as well. This lady has on some kind of dress, very brightly coloured... she reminds him of the butterflies his daddy shows him in the garden. He likes the colours, thinks they're pretty, wishes he could touch them. Then he remembers the time he tried to touch a butterflies wing and it tore, leaving the poor thing floundering on the ground. It had been the first time he remembers crying and his daddy had told him to make it a lesson not to touch things without asking if it was alright first.

"Come here,"

He blinks owlishly up at the woman as she holds out a hand, beckoning him imperiously towards her. A natural tendency towards obeying his elders makes him shuffle over and solemnly place a chubby hand in the strangers. Her hand is cold but very very soft, so different from the scratchy calluses on his father's and aunt's. She smells different too...a bit like the flowers with the fluffy golden pollen that gets onto his clothes and makes him sneeze.

"Your name is Shino, isn't it?"

He nods unsurprised by her knowledge, everybody knows his name after-all. Because of his daddy, who is clan leader, which means someday he will be clan leader too. One day.

Her hand tightens imperceptibly over his and he watches her curiously.

She is very pretty, a bit like the ladies in the storybooks his aunt bought him. His daddy won't read them to him, saying they are too fanciful but Shino still looks at the pictures...all the people in them are so richly coloured, and there's one of a lady in a tower that looks a lot like the woman holding his hand. They both have very dark, dark hair...shiny like the beetles he catches in his jars in the garden... and wear pretty dresses. And both look sad... the lady in the book looks out of the window, which is very high up and holds a hankerchief and looks so very sad that Shino wishes he could read the story to find out what she is sad about. Maybe in the end of the story she is happy again. He hopes so.

"Why are you sad, lady?"

She looks surprised, reaching immaculate varnished fingertips up to her cheek as if she expects to find tears there. Then her mouth sets itself in a hard straight line and Shino knows he has said the wrong thing... his daddy looks the same way when he asks him to read the fairytales.

"I'm not. You shouldn't be wandering around by yourself, you're not old enough."

He feels the familiar forbidden flare of temper, tightens his hands into fists.

"I am! I'm three! I'm a grown-up!"

There is a hint of smile on the corner of her mouth. It's not a nice smile, but she is looking at him contemplatively again and somehow it seems to have been the right thing to do.

Shino thinks he will never understand grown-ups.

"You've got a temper on you...they don't like that, I'm sure."

He scrunches his face up, torn between confiding in this strange pretty lady and the fact he doesn't want to say anything bad about his daddy. The indecision translates itself into a restless bouncing on the soles of his feet, and the lady smiles again... but this time it's a nice smile.

Shino smiles back before he can stop himself.

The lady's expression freezes and seems to melt into a new one... not as sad as before, but softer somehow. Her other hand reaches out, soft cold fingers touching his face so gently he can hardly feel them but he thinks they are shaking.

"Shino!"

He has never heard his father's voice like that.

The lady jumps back, wrenching her hand away from his so quickly that it stings. She looks angry now, cold, hateful. His father's hand lands on his shoulder, gripping so tightly Shino winces, pulling him backwards with urgency.

"Shino, you're not supposed to come into this part of the building. We're leaving, come on."

He is pulled away, knowing somehow he has done something so wrong, but unable to keep from looking back over his shoulder.

The lady watches him go with cold, sad eyes that are the same colour as his.

This is my alternate head-canon in which Shibi is in an unhappy arranged marriage, and Shino's mother is banned from seeing him due to attempting to escape and return to her family with Shino in tow shortly after his birth. I might write some more about it in a furthur fic but I think it's an interesting idea :)


End file.
